Existing and Emerging Laws on Junk E-mail

Existing related laws

US Code
47.5.II, section 227 The Junk Fax Law -
This is the law that many credit as being passed due to Sanford Wallace's
earlier junk-fax business (see NY Times articles above for citation).
Although much of the language in this law *appears* to be applicable to
computers and e-mail, the actual concept hasn't yet been tested in court
or had firm ruling. However, this law *could* easily be modified to
clearly include junk e-mail as well. See proposed federal legislation
below which does just that.

The Internet Engineering Task Force, which is the source
of the RFCs which governs Internet use and transmission protocols has
taken a position on the junk mail/spam issue. While not strictly 'laws',
the RFCs are the social and technical guidelines which allow the
Internet to function. The Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) working
group has their charter page at:
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/run-charter.html.
In addition, the draft Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and
Postings is available at:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-run-spew-02.txt.

Proposed Legislation

Federal - House of Representatives - New Jersey
Congressman Christopher Smith has drafted a bill which modifies the junk
fax law by including an electronic e-mail address of an individual in the
existing prohibition against sending unsolicited advertising transmissions
to fax machines. This law is truly 'opt-in' and is worthy of support by
consumers and ISPs alike.

Federal - Senate - Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski
has
offered a bill S.771 which mandates tagging of UCE with 'advertisement' in
the subject line, receiver-end filtering, and use of 'remove' lists. It
gives the FTC and FCC direction for enforcement of this plan, and requires
receiver-end ISPs to install the mandated filtering software within 2
years. This bill clearly misses the point of UCE imposing recevier cost,
dumpping the burden of UCE directly on the receiving ISP and their
customers. This bill and supporting documentation is available on Senator
Murkowski's web pages at

Federal - Senate - Sen. Torricelli's 'Electronic
Mailbox Protection Act of 1997' focuses on prohibiting falsified headers
and sources for any commercial mail, while requiring 'opt-out' remove
lists to be honored. This bill is seen so far as only marginally better
than the Murkowski bill in that it still allows mailboxes to be flooded
with 'one-time' and 'first-time' spams. Info on this bill is at:
http://www.vtw.org/uce/

California - AB-1629, introduced by Assembly
Member Miller on 5 Jan 1998, followed the model of US Rep Smith in
prohibiting unsoliticed advertising mail unless there was an existing
relationship with the recipient, or permission was granted to receive it.
The bill was amended in the CA Assembly on 12 March 1998, and narrows the
scope somewhat. It establishes somewhat 'keep off the grass' situation
for ISPs and e-mail domains. It proposes strong language which clearly
allows mail service providers (ISPs) to establish rules for their users
regarding sending of unsolicited advertising mail. It also clearly allows
for an ISP to publish a prohibition against use of their facilities for
reception of such mail, and establishes civil right of action against
violators to the tune of $50 per message up to $15,000 per day. A
particularly appealing aspect of the language is that it clearly
establishes the system owner's right to define how his property is used.
This one looks like a winner unless decimated by the DMA as was the case
in Nevada.
Text and status of this bill is available at
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_1629&sess=CUR&house=A
.

Colorado -
This bill treats unsolicited fax transmissions as a deceptive
trade practice. It requires a toll-free number in any transmission which
can be used to request removal from future transmissions. It further
requires notice to the consumer of sale of any list containing their fax
number. Despite the introduction to the bill specifically including
'electronic mail' provisions, the actual *text* of the bill which would be
used to revise the state statute mentions *only* facsimile transmissions.

Maryland - MD House Bill 778 includes electronic
mail under telephone harassment law. Not really an anti-spam bill,
the language dosen't speak to junk advertising mail per-se, but seems
more aimed at use of e-mail for harassment. While junk ad e-mail may
be 'annoying', it likely would be a tough legal hurdle to use that
issue against spam. The bill is at:

Massachusets - MA House Bill 4581, presented by
Rep. Patricia D. Jehlen (D), is patterend after the Nevada proposed
legislation below. It simply forbids unsolicited advertising mail unless
a pre-existing relationship exists or permission is granted by the
recipient. First hearing is due 23 June. Penalties and other details
will likely be added.

Nevada - NV state Senator William J. Raggio (R)
(e-mail address:
wraggio@sen.state.nv.us) has filed a bill, SB-13, in the Nevada
legislature which would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail 'to
solicit a person to purchase real property, goods or services.'

FLASH! THEY SCREWED IT UP! - 9 July - A last
minute Assembly Amendment inserted at the urging of the Direct Marketing
Association (DMA) has turned this pro-consumer legislation into pro-spam,
and the Governor signed it! The final law only requires
that UCE contain the address of the sender and instructions for removal
from future mailings. There are NO requirements that senders actually
*perform* removals, nor are there penalties for failing to do so. As
written, the law even allows junk mailers to *CHARGE* for 'removals'!

New York - NY State Senator Alesi, at the urging
of the NY State Attorney General is sponsoring a bill (S03524) which
provides that all unsolicited mail be clearly identified as such, carry
the name, address, and phone number of the sender, provide easy and sure
way to ensure removal from mailing lists. This bill also makes it
unlawful to sell e-mail lists unless those on the lists have expressly
given permission for distribution of their names.

PUBLIC NOTICE: Use of Tigerden computer and network facilities
for the purpose of transmitting unsolicited commercial advertising
electronic mail to any user or account on or through Tigerden machines is
expressly PROHIBITED. Appearance of any e-mail address on these pages
does *NOT* constitute solicitation of advertising email.